THE ARCANE ARCHIVE

Black Mirror / Magic Mirror

To: alt.paranormal.spells.hexes.magic,alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.occult.methods,alt.lucky.w
From: "Steve"
Subject: Re: Black Mirror / Magic Mirror
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 02:17:14 -0600
Never seen the other guy, but I do know that Bardon made use of the 'fluid
condenser'; I also know Bardon was a fruitcake... His sigils look like
drawings made by my 4 year old daughter, except you can tell what hers were
supposed to be.
Between Bardon and an unknown source for Bardon, I would pick the unknown
source any day... Looks like Bardon was one of those select few... the ones
who can be completely oblivious, and still get a hold of good systems.
For the other guy, Paskal Beverly Randolph, seems like I need to check him
out.
As far as the mirror goes, no offence intended, but I would not use ANY type
of artificial glass. Not that it would be bad for you, just that I
wouldn't... Emerald? Sure! Glass, no.
Part of the nature of any object is the substance from which it is made, and
its history; seems to me like 'real' glass is nothing but a poor copy of the
way nature makes it anyway. Within each crystal of emerald, for example, is
a microscopic drop of water; there is even a variety (I believe South
American, but I could be wrong) that contains a drop of water and a single
grain of salt in every crystal. That, and emerald forms with natural
occlusions that help capture the eye, and distract the mind.
While I understand the value and expence that a large emerald represents,
the same type of history and meaning could be found with several natural
mirrors... Hematite, for example, is magnetic (find any glass that does
that!), the mayans used to grind it up and mix it with water for the red
paint on their temples; this is called "dragon's blood" today. Obsidian is
actually true glass, formed from lava, heart blood of the earth. It is
capable of two differing types of optic effects difficult to render in
'real' glass. Lastly, by taking a slab of crystal or calcite, you could
polish a mirror and paint the back just as you could with glass, but still
have all natural materials and the optic effects and occlusions present in
them. Anther possibility is star sapphire (I have a beautiful 20carat blue
star sapphire that I use for scrying). And we cant forget the old faithful,
black onyx.
As for symbols, I have to aggree, there are many, especially from the time
of Alexandria to the end of the Renaisance, that do look rather, well...
made up. Many of these were probably created simply to make it look like
the person writing had great power, and deep connections with systems that
were hidden from everyone else. Most of that was bullshit. Very few books
that I trust out of the middle ages, but of them all, the Greater Key seems
greatly authentic... Don't get me wrong, I know that some of the chapters
were added later by the Christians, and there are a few pentacles that were
made up later by someone of obvious ignorance (mostly in the 'Pentacles of
the Moon'; unfortunately.) There are, though without a doubt strong
influences from OLD cabalistic schools. For example, the primary
conjusration (pg 26-28) is undoubtedly authentic, and contains references
that would not have been recognized or employed by the Christians at the
time. ('Who hath measured those heavens in the hollow of His hand, and
enclosed the earth with three of his fingers..." as just one example.)
While you can use symbols from any system of thought (or even simply those
that have meaning to you); the systems you seem to be headed through would
reccommend the Greater Key heavily... I would also reccommend 'Meditation
and the Kabbalah' and 'Sepher Yetzirah' by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. By
understanding the systems which were practiced by the Hebrew mystics, many
of the seals in the Greater Key simply begin to make sense. You can
immediately see the thought and depth in several of the seals, as well as
most of the conjurations; I have even made a personal study of specific
pentacles and their effects... which has greatly increased my knowledge as
to the Cabalistic and magical arts... and all of it meshes perfectly with
the Hebrew (as seperate and quite distinct from the Western or GD/OTO
cabala)....
From evidence such as this, there are several examples of pentacles that
would be beautiful engraved upon a mirror... depends on how you wish to use
it:
Saturn - The last pentacle of saturn: figure 17: This pentacle is in the
shape of a triangle (suitable for goetiec evokations), and the three sides
of the triangle are formed by the names of the nine choirs of angels. One
note, however... the author of the pentacle chose to place the choirs of
angles in direct order, but it would make more sense, in my mind, if he
listed those choirs from the pillar of mercy on the left, those of the
pillar of severity on the right, and those of the middle pillar on top...
then the sides of the triangle would represent the triple aspect of the
universe (present in the three pillars) descending through the three worlds
(represented by the three ranks of angels (outer to the inner) in the
pentacle) these three worlds, in Hebrew thought are 'Create' (something from
nothing), 'Form' (spiritual essence tied to shape and form) and 'Make'
(which denotes physical, tangible substance)... this should help focus the
intent, channel energy into the center of the triangle, and be sufficient to
trap just about any creature in the triangle. (excepting of course, angels
and God forms, which would not be trapped).
Another choice here would be the Second pentacle of saturn, the
one with the accrostic... It has been claimed to me (with some evidence)
that the "SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS" accrostic would be translated as
"Saturn spins the wheel of life"... but that cant be completely supported.
Jupiter The Fifth pentacle of Jupiter: "This hath great power. It serveth
for assured visions." speaks well of it; the fact that the spirits invoked
within the pentacle itself are related to Cabalistic mysticism does also;
Note the three Mem's in the center? Read up in Sepher Yetzirah by Rabbi
Aryeh Kaplan for their useage.
The Sun - The First pentacle of the Sun: bears the face of Methraton, (but
incorrectly calls him the Prince of the Countanance, which I do not think
was quite accidental) which is the spirit called upon by Jewish mystics when
they meditate upon the Shemhamphorash; this being sort of equivelent to
meditaing on the 'World Soul'.
The fourth pentacle of the sun - "This serves to enable you
to see the spirits when they appear invisible to those who invoke them;
because, when you have uncovered it, they will immediately appear visible."
Say enough?
The Seventh pentacle of the sun : Claims to be good for
those imprisoned.. It will immediately set free those who are "Bound in
fetters of Iron".. which I would take as meaning that it would release you
from your physical bondage...
Mercury: 1st... serves to invoke those spirits that can
grant things "contrary unto the order of nature"... depends on your personal
bends... Either way, "they can with difficulty be seen" so personally I
would skip. I mention it only because I dont know what your goals are; the
pentacle is also VERY basic, and was either very quickly thrown together, or
simply impossibly obscure.
Fourth: to aquire Knowledge of all things created... the
sigil itself is actually pretty deep, and its physical design etched into
the face would greatly assist in distracting the mind.
Fifth: this one, and the first pentacle of the moon, are to
'Open any door, no matter in what way it may be fastened'... the one of
mercury blows secrets wide open, and grants the answer to pretty much any
question you can ask... the one of the moon rips open the third eye.
MOON: two pents here, and they seem to work in concert quite
well. The First, to rip open the third eye, I would place (in a modified
form) on the face. It lists four spirits upon it, as well as five great
names of god... more important, tho, is their organization... the 1st name
of God, YHVH is placed down the center of the talisman, seperating the
remaining names into four pairs. Since the four letters of YHVH symbolize
the four elements, and the four directions, I would take it to mean that the
four God names, and their coresponding angels would be called within their
respective quadrant. I have actually broken their names down in Hebrew, and
have a good idea of the functioning of this particular pentacle. I wont
bore you with breaking them down here, or explaining its use atm, but I
would place at minimum the four angels in the four quadrants on a mirror for
myself. Its versical reads "He hath broken the gates of brass, and smitten
the bars of Iron in Sunder.".
The second pentacle, the mate to the first, is the Last.
It, according to its description causes rain... "All the great fountains of
the deep were upon the earth, and the rain was upon the earth" (from the
great flood); however, this is pretty obviously an allusion to is ability to
cause manifestation of etheric/astral energy (at least, based on Hebraic
cabala). I have not yet succedded in breaking down the language that forms
the angles in the pentacle; to be honest... but I have seen enough with
regards to the alphabet that they are using to be convinced of its power.
Unfortunately, I do not generally ACTIVELY use anything I do not have a good
grasp on, so it is up to you... personally, if I were to include it on the
design, I would place it on the back of the mirror, with the hexagram facing
the side I had designated EAST with the previous pentacle...
For a mirror purely used for evokations from the Goetia or the like, I would
undoubtedly use the last pentacle of saturn... across the face with the
third pentacle on the reverse to assist in containing/energizing the
mirror... for this purpose, the mirror would undoubtedly be black, and made
of either Onyx, Obsidian or Hematite. (if hematite, I would allow the
engraving of the letters to remain unpolished inside, then the blood red
oxidation would shine through); note also that hematite has a very strong
martial componant to it (it is actually iron ore, specifically,
Iron-Oxide... natural rust crystal).
For purely Angelic evokations, or for purely high spiritual visions, I would
chose either the pent of jupiter, or the first or last of the sun, perhaps
in some form of combination.
For a general purpose mirror, I would personally chose the pentacles that I
mentioned of the moon... While I can not ACTIVELY use the last pentacle
without fully understanding it; it works wonderfully passively (hence my
recommendation for the reverse of the mirror)... This I would make circular,
and out of rock crystal or calcite by choice, but it would be difficulat and
expensive to actually do this. If you wish to use glass, I would use some
form of silver or its oxides for its reflectivity; certainly not lead.
If you have a hard time developing your astral sight, the fourth pent of the
sun would be great; and I would recommend it on either Feldspar (sunstone)
or on more economical Obsidian (the type with the golden optical effect)
The fourth and fith pentacles of mercury would be great fun! Although I am
not sure what type of stone I would construct such a thing of... might even
be better to make that one on metal.
Hope that helps. Sorry its so long; I rant.
Me
"Magician's Apprentice" wrote in message
news:7a857v4ffvvi9kuh76580devcliktkn39u@4ax.com...
> Danny,
>
> You will find Dr. P.B. Randolph's book "Seership and How to Use the
> Magic Mirror which he wrote around 1861 on The Denver Spiritual
> Community's web site. You may read it on line at:
> http://www.denverspiritualcommunity.org/
>
> On the Links page you will also find more information on Magic Mirrors
> and Scrying plus a picture of one of the mirrors I built from Donald
> Tyson's book "How to Make and Use a Magic Mirror".
>
> I also made a Magic Mirror, bolo slide out of a round, flat piece of
> Obsidian and incorporated a fluid condenser on the backside. Of
> course, since it has a lunar charge I only wear it a night. I get the
> same results with it as I do with the other mirrors I have made.
>
> If you want a mirror made entirely of obsidian, there is a old man, I
> know, here in Colorado, that custom makes them - about 4 or 5 a year.
>
> I don't often visit alt.magick, so if you have any questions, you may
> email me or join the Denver Spiritual Community Yahoo Group.
>
> Magician's Apprentice
>
> On Fri, 07 Mar 2003 18:48:26 GMT, Catherine Yronwode
> wrote:
>
> >Danny (danny.boy.1@comcast.net) wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi all. I've never posted anything here before, but I thought I might
hop
> >> on to see if anyone might be interested in passing on their experience/
> >> opinions about a project I'm working on.
> >>
> >> My great grandmother was a witch and, though my parents did try to get
me
> >> into the Christian church thing, I consider myself to have "grown up
> >> Pagan" from the summers and such I would spend with my grandmother. She
> >> was a solitary, though would occasionally meet with others for ritual.
I
> >> learned a lot from her, being included in those rituals, and from her
> >> teaching me everything from herbs, stones, and crystals to ritual,
> >> anthropology, and archetypal super-psychology. Anyway, that's my
> >> background. She passed on just a couple years ago, and I inherited her
> >> spells and many wonderful ritual tools with her loving energy to add to
my
> >> own tools.
> >>
> >> For a while now, I've been thinking about crafting my own black mirror.
> >> It's been on the back burner because I've been busy and also because I
> >> consider divination and such to be somewhat of a weakness for me. My
aunt
> >> and I have gone through her grimoire and continue to find loose leaf
> >> papers as well with grandma's spell work. I've recently come across
some
> >> papers for constructing a black mirror. They are somewhat incomplete,
> >> though. Also, I tend to like to research things out and know precisely
why
> >> I'm adding this symbol or why I'm burning that herb or what have you.
> >>
> >> At this point, I've exhausted what the internet has to offer on black
> >> mirrors (not too terribly much) and have read the applicable
Giambattista
> >> della Porta, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, and Donald Tyson on the
subject.
> >> I'm particularly intrigued with Tyson's ideas on fluid condensers, an
idea
> >> evolved from the theory of animal magnetism. I've studied the history
of
> >> black mirrors starting with the historical use of pools of water as
> >> divinatory tools in ancient times.
> >>
> >> I've also read the simple instructions for making a black mirror which
are
> >> basically to take a piece of glass, paint one side black, put
meaningful
> >> symbols on it, consecrate/energize it in an appropriate Moon ritual,
have
> >> a Coke and a smile, and shut the hell up. LOL I think that's perfectly
> >> fine for some people with stronger powers of visualization and whose
> >> interests run a different course than mine. I do honestly believe that
> >> this method can produce a more-than-adequate ritual tool for some
people.
> >>
> >> I understand the school of thought that all the rest may not be of such
> >> great importance and that a black mirror may be simply made without
such
> >> effort as looking into the historical background of such mirrors. If my
> >> grandmother taught me anything, though, it's to find one's own path. My
> >> tendancies are to need a little more in the physical plane to link me
to
> >> the inner planes and to the higher planes. My powers of visualization
are
> >> not the very best. Besides that, I very much enjoy the intellectual and
> >> academic challenge of trying to wrap my mind around the whole of black/
> >> magic mirrors through history before deciding on a design that I
consider
> >> to be compatible with my own path.
> >>
> >> That said, my plans so far are: (1) To create a mirror using
appropriate
> >> pulverized stones/crystals and herbs as fluid condensers in both the
> >> construction of the mirror and in its periodic recharging and (2) To
> >> choose appropriate symbols to place on and around the mirror. I'm
> >> comfortable with my choices of stones and herbs. My problem is this:
I'm
> >> not quite sure of the ancient alphabets / runic systems to use. I'm not
> >> sure of the applicability of Moon symbols derived from qabbalistic
> >> writings, for instance, or from magic squares. In some of what I've
read,
> >> the various symbols proposed for use in a black mirror seem hodgepodged
> >> somehow.
> >>
> >> I understand that these are somewhat minor considerations in the grand
> >> scheme of things and that it may seem as though I'm being "manic" about
> >> it. More than anything, though, it's that I not only want to create a
> >> black mirror that's right for my path but that is as "historically
sound"
> >> as possible. It's how I get my kicks. I'm sort of at an impass in my
> >> research and am wondering if anyone out there has thought along these
> >> lines as well. I'd love to hear from you, whoever you are.
> >>
> >> One of my specific concerns is about the ramifications of using regular
> >> plate glass for the mirror. The greenish tint along the edge of cut
glass
> >> is actually an indication that the glass itself has a greenish tint.
This
> >> can normally not be detected with the naked eye because any given piece
of
> >> glass is usually thin enough that the greenish tint is not apparent.
Such
> >> "green"glass is the most common as it is the least costly to
manufacture.
> >> I'm worried about what this might mean to the success of such glass
being
> >> used in the construction of a black mirror. The fact that the glass has
a
> >> greenish tint to it means that it doesn't let all green wavelengths
> >> through and that some of the green is actually reflected back. There is
> >> "ultraclear" glass available which eliminates this tinting, but such
glass
> >> is 8-10 times as expensive, and I'd like to not have to go that route
if
> >> it's not necessary.
> >>
> >> Is this greenish tint important in a magickal sense? I don't have the
> >> background to answer that question for myself, but I fear that it might
> >> make a difference.
> >>
> >> If it does make a difference in a magickal sense, would there be a way
to
> >> construct the mirror using this common glass and then somehow
compensate
> >> for the greenish tint magickally?
> >>
> >> Should I just bite the bullet and pay the extra for the "ultra clear"
> >> glass?
> >>
> >> Thanks to all and blessed be,
> >> -Danny
> >
> >Speaking historically, and with respect to the greenish tint in most
> >glass, the first thing i would like to offer is that you use obsidian
> >stone or black stained glass. But i do not think the green tint is a
> >serious issue, and i would like to offer some hisorical data to back
> >up this opinion:
> >
> >Have you investigated the life and works of Pascal Beverly Randolph,
> >the great mirror scryer of the 19th century? Between 1850 and 1875 he
> >both made black mirrors of his own and imported so-called "Battah"
> >scrying mirrors to America from India. He also wrote a classic book on
> >the subject of how to work with scrying mirrors.
> >
> >The reason i mention Randolph is that he was a friend of the deposed
> >and exiled Maharajah of Mysore, Dalip Singh (also spelled Daleep
> >Singh), who lived in Paris, and who was also a user of divinatory
> >mirrors. According to Randolph (and others) Singh had in his
> >possession a fabulous Indian scrying mirror -- which Randolph
> >considered the finest he had ever seen or used -- and it was not black
> >glass, but rather a large green emerald. In other words, it was green.
> >So obviously in Randolph's opinion, an opinion i would consider both
> >expert and highly opinionated, the green tint was not a drawback.
> >
> >By the way, you mention "Tyson's ideas on fluid condensers" -- but if
> >i understand what you are referring to, then those ideas are more
> >generally attributed to Franz Bardon than to Tyson -- and Bardon in
> >turn obviously got them from Pascal Beverly Randolph. Randolph makes
> >it fairly clear, if you read between the lines of his autodidactic
> >Victorian prose, that in the 1850s, at least, he sold mirrors of his
> >own making and consecration in which the the sigilic fluid condenser
> >of his mirrors was "painted" with a compound made from a mixture of
> >hashish and other plant-derived materials combined with the mingled
> >sexual fluids of himself and his wife Mary Randolph. Later in life,
> >when Pascal and Mary had divorced, it can be presumed that the mirrors
> >he sold utilized the combined sexual fluids of himself and his second
> >wife Kate Corson Randolph.
> >
> >Recipes for the plant materials used by Pascal Beverly Randolph in
> >making the "paint" for the sigils on the back of his mirrors have been
> >passed down orally and no one is quite sure at this date what all was
> >in his fluid condensers beyond hashish and sexual fluids -- but
> >several sources point to lettuce sap as an ingredient. (This sounds
> >funny only to people unfamiliar with herbalism: lettuce contains opium
> >in small amounts.) An alternative would be actual opium poppy juice --
> >and in fact some recipes attributed to Randolph call for the sap of
> >all three plants -- marijuana, lettuce, and opium poppies -- as well
> >as the sap of other plants with psychoactive or poisonous principles,
> >such aconite and absinthe (wormwood).
> >
> >As for what kinds of sigils Randolph indicted on the mirrors he made
> >for sale, that remains unknown; they would not likely have been
> >goetic, given his background and training. It is possible that that he
> >:signed" his mirrors with his personal sigil of a winged globe and his
> >motto "TRY!" -- but the sigils may also have been Rosicrucian, since
> >"The Rosicrucian" was one of his preferred pseudonyms.
> >
> >If you are not familiar with Randolph, i heartily advise you to buy
> >the biography by John Patrick Deveney, "Pascal Beverly Randolph" -- or
> >at least get a taste for Randolph's work at the web page i have
> >written about him at
> > http://www.luckymojo.com/tkpbrandolph,thml
> >
> >Also, i wonder if you have contacted Poke Runyon of the CHS/OTA? He
> >is, in my opinion, the most erudite living authority on mirror
> >scrying. He has produced videos on the techniques he uses and is quite
> >helpful to people new to the subject.
> >
> >I am cross-posting this into alt.magick, a newsgroup Poke reads
> >regularly, in the hope that he might have further comments on the
> >green tint of glass and the types of sigils that are appropriate for
> >use in mirror scrying. .
> >
> >Good luck.
> >
> >cat yronwode
> >
> >Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic
> >http://www.luckymojo.com/hoodooherbmagic.html
>

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